


Texts

by DeliriousMess



Category: Haven - Fandom, Haven RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 21:37:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5642869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeliriousMess/pseuds/DeliriousMess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of the very first things I ever wrote for Duke and Jennifer. Just Jennifer talking about her mom and taking a minute to miss her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Texts

“Texts from a concerned boyfriend?” Duke asks, nodding towards the rather outdated cell phone in Jennifer’s hands. He offers her a beer while she fumbles with the phone in her surprise.

 

“What? Oh! No, no that’s not–I haven’t–This is an old phone.” She stammers, before letting out a tired sigh, accepting the offered beer and pocketing the small flip phone, “I suppose it’s a little ridiculous now.”

“What is?” Duke asks as she takes a drink. 

She gestures with the phone, “This. The fact that I even have it. It’s just…this is the last phone I have voice mails and some text messages from my mom on.”

“Oh.” Duke says, glancing away from Jennifer before trying to apologize, “I didn’t mean–”

“She used to call me.” Jennifer interrupts, keeping her eyes on the water. “Every night. It started in college, and it was her way of reassuring herself that I was still there. I guess pretty soon it became my way of doing the same for her. Even when I finally landed my big job at The Globe, she’d call my phone, whether I’d answer or not, and just…talk, you know? She’d tell me how proud of me she was, that she loved me, that Dad would be proud of me too, and then she’d tell me goodnight.”

She pauses, taking a slow drink from her beer. Duke looks from her, to his own bottle in his hands, to the water, to back to her as she continues, “I looked so forward to those calls, even when I didn’t pick up. When she was in the hospital, I was the one who would call her, even if I’d just seen her earlier that day. When she died, I almost couldn’t bring myself to listen to any of her voicemails, but I also couldn’t conceive of getting rid of this stupid phone. It seemed too final.” She pauses, tilting her head to the side as she considers her words, “No…not ‘final.’ More like…it felt too much like I’d be getting rid of her. Getting rid of the very last traces of her from my life.”

Duke nods, though he’s not sure she’s really paying attention to him.

She shrugs, “Eventually, when things would get really hard, or I’d start to doubt myself, those voicemails were the only things that I felt like I could rely on. For a few minutes, she was back, and she knew exactly what I wanted to hear.”

She smiles as she shakes her head, trying to use her short hair to hide her face, “It might be silly, but with everything going on in this town, I just really need that voice of love to tell me that I’m good enough, and that I’ll still be able to keep going.”

She ventures a glance at Duke who is watching her carefully, “I guess I just really needed one more 'good night’,”

They hold each other’s gaze for a long moment before Jennifer sighs, “Anyway. Sorry to throw all that on you at once.” She stands, stretching her back and raising her arms high over her head, “Thanks for the beer, Duke. I think I’m going to go read for awhile. See you in the morning.”

He nods, offering a smirk and a wave as she walks passed him.

A little while later, once she’s put the flip phone back in its place in one of her bags, and just as she’s deciding on a stopping point in her book, her phone buzzes next to her. She glances at it and is surprised to see that it’s a text message from Duke.

She opens it and she feels something in her break open.

“Good night, Jennifer.”

Before she can stop herself, she sends back, “Good night, Duke.”


End file.
